Rolling into a new year, always and naturally means setting new personal and business goals. 2018 will be a challenge, I know that and I thrive for this. Through 2017, I probably focused more with home life over that of work which definitely had an impact as a whole. As a result, work life had not been as successful as I had hoped for, partly due to frustrating project holdups (which being freelance, we don’t get paid for). For 2018, I want to shake the past off and put that behind me. I want to avoid these downfalls and continuously grab and bring new opportunities to life. It’s my passion and what I truly enjoy.
1. Detach Distractions
I want to simplify my life and the things around me. If there are activities going on around me that doesn’t require my involvement, then I’m staying away. I want to keep a straight and narrow mind set on my goals throughout 2018, which I will remind myself of every day. With less distractions and more focus on the areas of work that matter, what I will achieve is going to be very exciting!
2. Officially Launch SKOOLping®
I aimed to launch my own project during the middle of 2017, but unfortunately during the first few months I became faced with a few hurdles - but with collaboration we can now get back to it. The SKOOLping website was designed and developed towards the end of 2017, and has recently gone live - but unfortunately (due to the above) our app is still within the development stages. Learning an in-depth understanding of the programming language ‘Swift’ (including CocoaTouch for iOS) was a goal for 2017 and creating this application was to become part that. I’ve now moved this huge goal and will reset for 2018. I’m also very excited about how I progress and grow with my profession for Swift, and what opportunities this new skill will bring.
3. New Clients & Contracts (with commute or via remote)
I worked and collaborated with a few new clients throughout 2017, which was fantastic! Now turning things up for 2018 - I want to meet, work and collaborate with new clients and organisations. Maybe even work alongside a team of talented folk on exciting projects. I want to excel myself and become an essential part of a team, or as a freelance individual.
4. Network More, Attend Events
When you’re working as a freelancer, working within a separate office away from your home, but STILL located within the boundaries of your property, it can get a little too comfortable. This results in not getting out and about in the world, such as commuting to a place of work. This also means that I, yes I’ll admit it, didn’t make an effort to attend events that I’m interested in as much as I wanted to in and around London. I only attended two events in 2017, which were a Microsoft Azure bootcamp and another about UAV Safety and Airspace. I’m getting out there for 2018. I’m going to make a keen effort to make sure I attend as many events that relate to my skillset as I can. Whether this are small meetings, or large global based events, I’m going to make an effort to be there… even hanging out online.
5. Work Towards Certification(s)
Being a freelance full-stack designer, means that it’s quite hard to focus and specialise on one particular area. For example; working towards certification for Microsoft Azure. Yes I use Azure daily, but I also use other platforms too, such also Google Cloud. This means that it’s quite hard to take the time to study and sit the exams to obtain the certification. Also, what would I gain from having a Microsoft Azure certification against my name? 98% of my clients haven’t even heard of Azure. This means there has been no beneficial reason in the past to obtain and take time towards these certifications. My clients pay me to build and provide them with solutions, they don’t pay me to use a particular platforms. For 2018, I’m going to make an attempt to obtain as many certification for the platforms I use as I can. I may only get around to achieving one certification, but time will tell.
6. Explore Artificial Intelligence (AI) & Blockchain Foundation
Finding the time to research deeper into Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been on the “To Do” list for a few months already, but haven’t yet found the time - no surprise there! The Blockchain Foundation is a fairly new one. Reading into it a while back explained how this new technology can change thing for the better and stack history (pun intended). This will defiantly be a much discussed subject for 2018 amongst tech companies and I will be very interested in how the Blockchain is implement into day-to-day things. I may even take advantage of Blockchain in a future project, who knows.